TODAY I WATCHED... (Movies, TV) 2017

Aliens


The girls and I are revisiting some franchises they don't remember or have never seen.

Season 5 of 'Orange Is The New Black'. They did a really good job of mixing comedy, drama, tragedy and a fair amount of uneasy creepiness into the season. Very good.

John Wick
John Wick 2



Holy body count, Batman!

Been slackin' on the movie watching lately... getting back into the groove with this semi classic P.O.S.

"Omega Cop" (1990)

Zero budget action schlock starring martial artist Ron Marchini as the lone police officer in a post-apocalyptic "city" (which looks a lot like a deserted suburban industrial park on a Sunday afternoon). He protects a couple of girls with bad '80s hair from slave traders and kicks ass on an endless stream of random mulleted dudes who look like WWE rejects. That's it. This flick has no production values, no plot, no story, no redeeming values whatsoever.
Followed by a sequel, "Karate Cop," which I shall make sure to avoid like the plague.

Since the Pirates were bumbling again last night, I decided to watch an oldie from my youth that I haven't seen since then, 1963's Matango (aka Attack Of The Mushroom People).

A Toho produced film (and stars no less than 4 actors from Godzilla films), this one deals with a pleasure sailboat thrown off course and stranding it's passengers on a fog enshrouded island. As their food supply dwindles and tensions start to rise, they discover an almost endless supply of strange mushrooms. Needless to say, the passengers should not eat those mushrooms or they will find out you truly are what you eat. I found that this movie has held up over the years. Good stuff.

"Apocalypse Now Redux" (1979/2001)


Believe it or not, this is the first time I've ever seen Francis Ford Coppola's sprawling Vietnam War epic - via the three-hour-and-fifteen-minute "director's cut" re-release, no less.

Martin Sheen is an Army captain on a top secret assignment to eliminate a former Special Forces colonel (Marlon Brando) who's taken over a portion of the Cambodian jungle and set himself up as a murderous Manson-type cult leader. The people he meets on his journey up river - and the atrocities he witnesses along the way - make up most of the story.

I've been told for years that this is one of the movies I need to see before I die, and now I see why. "A.N." is spooky, haunting, disturbing, beautifully photographed, and full of great performances and quotable bits. This 2001 extended version is at least a half hour longer than is really necessary but even so it's still great stuff.

I have yet to watch Apocalypse Now as well. I was burned out on all the Vietnam movies released back in that era so I never invested the time to catch it. It's on my one of these days list.

007 wrote:

I have yet to watch Apocalypse Now as well. I was burned out on all the Vietnam movies released back in that era so I never invested the time to catch it. It's on my one of these days list.

Count me among the "never have seen" it club as well.  I've read/heard so much about it though and I have my doubts that it would surpass my all-time favorite war movie "Full Metal Jacket". That's probably the main reason I've never seen Apocalypse Now; a case of "can't touch this" vis a vis FMJ.

^^ I've actually never seen "Full Metal Jacket" either, now that you guys mention it. Maybe that should be next on my list...

On topic:

"The Matador" (2005)

A contract killer teetering on the edge of burn out (Pierce Brosnan) meets a dorky salesman (Greg Kinnear) in a Mexican hotel bar, and the two men strike up an odd friendship ...which ends up with Pierce needing Greg's help to finish one last job.
A well written, funny twist on the "buddy comedy" formula, with great performances by the two leads. Brosnan is definitely having a ball playing the total opposite of his usual super-suave type.

The Time Of Their Lives (1946)

Abbott and Costello flick with Lou and Marjorie Reynolds as Revolutionary War era ghosts haunting the estate in which they were killed. Bud Abbott plays a Revolutionary era adversary of Costello and his modern day descendant. Pretty standard affair,not a total time waster.

Star Trek

"We Are X" (2016)


Documentary about the long and sometimes bizarre/tragic history of Japanese rock legends X Japan, who are treated like Gods in their homeland but remain a mostly unknown quantity in the Western world. X Japan is one of those bands I've always heard much about though I don't think I ever actually heard any of their stuff till I watched this film. In spite of my near-total unfamiliarity with their material, this was an interesting rock doc.  If you're a fan of the band, you'll dig this even more than I did.

Supernatural

Fat Freddy wrote:

"We Are X" (2016)


Documentary about the long and sometimes bizarre/tragic history of Japanese rock legends X Japan, who are treated like Gods in their homeland but remain a mostly unknown quantity in the Western world. X Japan is one of those bands I've always heard much about though I don't think I ever actually heard any of their stuff till I watched this film. In spite of my near-total unfamiliarity with their material, this was an interesting rock doc.  If you're a fan of the band, you'll dig this even more than I did.

Just read an interesting article on this guys on Classic Rock Magazine, never heard one note of their music but I am curious enough to check out the documentary.

A Most Violent Year

Quote :

^^ I've actually never seen "Full Metal Jacket" either, now that you guys mention it. Maybe that should be next on my list...

I love FMJ. It's like two movies in one. Thanks to the performance of R. Lee Ermey I think the first half is hilarious. But the second half, while it still has some "comedic" moments, is much more serious. One of my all-time favorite movies.

"Iron Man" (2008)


After a near-fatal experience in a Middle East war zone, zillionaire genius Tony Stark returns home and creates a super-suit of armor that allows him to kick mucho bad guy butt. Robert Downey Jr. was the perfect guy to play Stark, he's got Tony's world-weary, smug prick vibe down pat. "Iron Man" kicked off the Marvel Cinematic Universe in fine style, and is still one of the best flicks in the MCU all these years later.

Becker

Kolchak The Night Stalker
Smackdown
Criminal Minds

Fear The Walking Dead

Leatherface wrote:

Kolchak The Night Stalker

I love that show! I have the whole series on DVD and while it doesn't hold up very well a lot of the time the nostalgia factor is off the charts.

The New Gong Show

"Spider-Man" (1977)


Science dork Peter Parker is bitten by a radioactive spider during an experiment and gains its powers and abilities. Those skills come in handy because New York is being terrorized by a mysterious hypnotist who makes ordinary citizens commit crimes via mind control.

I hadn't seen this cheap-n-cheesy pilot movie for the short lived '70s Spidey TV series since I was a kid and it was, as I expected, entertainingly awful. No wonder the show didn't last long.

Kind of strange, considering I'm seeing the new Spider-Man movie this afternoon.